One of the frequently cited uses for virtual reality is building empathy by immersing users in the viewpoint of others. Google today is doubling down on that VR use with Daydream Impact — a training program that provides equipment to various organizations.

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Virtual reality is incredibly important and YouTube has been doubling down over the past year to ensure that it is the premier platform for the format. The latest update for creators adds heatmaps to see how viewers are interacting with 360-degree and VR videos.

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Announced just last week, HTC today unveiled a Japan-only VR accessory for its U11 flagship. The HTC Link is not Vive-branded, but has impressive six degrees of freedom tracking (6DoF) that is a first for smartphone virtual reality.

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What I/O 2017 set to kickoff in less than 24 hours, Google might showcase a standalone virtual reality headset at the event. Rumored for over a year, it will not require a smartphone or a PC and possibly use inside-out positional tracking.

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Back in June of 2016, it was revealed that Google was working on a way to make virtual reality accessible from every web browser, dubbed WebVR. Then, with the release of Chrome 56 Beta, Google started to allow developers to begin testing their WebVR projects on the web. Today, Google has published 12 WebVR experiments for users to test out not only with Daydream headsets but also those with Cardboard…

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With virtual reality gaming quickly on the rise we’re seeing more and more consumers pick up VR headsets such as the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Currently these are the two biggest players in the game, but if plans from Google had come to fruition, there may have been another headset on the market…

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It’s no secret that Google is heavily interested in virtual reality technology and now it’s looking to bring some of that technology to Chrome. As noticed by Road To VR, the latest builds of Chrome Beta and Chrome Dev bring the beginnings of support for WebVR.

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VR is slowly taking over the tech space as more and more companies make their attempts to steal your content-consuming eyeballs. As you may know, Google was among the first to debut a mobile VR experience with Google Cardboard, but it was pretty barebones to say the least.

At Google I/O 2016 we got a sneak peek at what Google has in store for virtual reality in the coming months with Google Daydream. And right around the corner from the full Android N release, Google has debuted a set of developer tools to allow anyone with a Nexus 6P to test out Daydream right now…

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From new Moto devices to Project Tango, Lenovo will have a full lineup of announcements this Thursday at Tech World 2016. Now, a new render has surfaced highlighting the thinness of the Moto Z, while a Bluetooth certification points to low-end devices also set to carry the Moto name.

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At Google I/O‘s keynote yesterday, one of the highlights of the final unveiling of Android N was all about Virtual Reality. While no “Android VR” headset was announced, the search giant introduced Daydream, a VR platform that will be available within Android N.

According to Clay Bavor, which debuted Daydream on stage, as many as eight big-name partners are already onboard: Samsung, HTC, LG, Xiaomi, ZTE, Asus, Alcatel and Huawei, and today, the latter OEM is giving us some more information about its integration with Google’s VR vision…

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As I/O approaches, Google is doubling down on virtual reality with a new head of business and operations for the division (via Recode). Formerly president of Google for Work, Amit Singh announced today that he was moving to Google VR as vice president.

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With Google I/O starting next week, veteran tech journalist Peter Rojas has tweeted that Android VR will launch as a dedicated, standalone headset. This corroborates earlier reports and the mention of “AndroidVR” we saw yesterday in the latest Unreal Engine preview.

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At the I/O developer conference next week, Google is widely expected to delve deeper into virtual reality with a Gear VR-like headset. And while we don’t know what that means quite yet, it seems Google could announce VR software at the event as a reference to “AndroidVR” was spotted in the latest Unreal Engine preview…

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Clay Bavor, previously Google’s VP of Gmail and Drive, took over the company’s virtual reality efforts right around the turn of 2016. It has been over four months since then, and as the company now continues thinking beyond its super-cheap Cardboard headset made of actual cardboard, Bavor gave an interview to Popular Science on the topic of the company’s experience with Cardboard and how that’s impacting its future VR endeavors…

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I’ve long be intrigued about the potential of virtual reality, and as such, I’ve been dying to try the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive. Sadly, I’ve yet to have the opportunity to try either.

I humbly settled on Google Cardboard, which is a nice novelty, but a less than ideal experience. For all that Google Cardboard lacked, it made it clear that VR is more than just a passing fad, and that it features some serious potential.

Google Cardboard, for all of its merits, doesn’t do the idea of VR justice. Fortunately, you don’t have to spend ~$1500 to enjoy a proper VR experience. Samsung’s Gear VR, an idea brought to reality via a partnership with VR pioneer Oculus, is a legitimate VR experience that makes me downright excited about the future of this technology.

Gear VR is far from perfect, but it’s a huge upgrade over Google Cardboard, and cheap enough to where the masses can both experience and validate it. expand full story

According to a new report from The Information, behind closed doors Google is much more interested in augmented reality than it is in virtual reality. Google of course has publicly marketed its Cardboard VR product heavily, but that’s apparently not the end-goal for the company — augmented reality is.

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A day after their Twitter tease of what is presumably the One M10, HTC executives sat down with CNET for a wide-ranging talk. In the interview, CEO Cher Wang and CFO Chialin Chang said that the company’s next phone will have a better camera while noting the importance of the new Vive VR.

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Coca-Cola could easily equip just about everyone in the country with a free Google Cardboard-style VR viewer if the above experiment turns into reality.

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Samsung’s Gear 360 video camera leaked a few weeks ago, and today it’s official. Until now the idea of owning a camera that can capture video and images in a VR-compatible 360-degree format may have been a foreign concept to most, but Samsung is really taking a stab at bringing VR content to the mainstream with this offering….

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With LG’s G5 event out of the way, Samsung’s will be the last major Android-related event of press day at Mobile World Congress 2016. The event begins at 10AM PST / 1PM EST and will be streamed by Samsung in a variety of ways…

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In addition to working on a Gear VR-like headset which would require a smartphone, Google is also reportedly working on a standalone virtual reality headset as well. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the headset would not require a smartphone or computer and might be released as soon as this year.

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Not wanting Facebook to have a monopoly on virtual reality, Google has lately been doubling down on the platform. Their new VR division is overseen by a longtime Google exec and is staffed with talent from around the company. The Financial Times is now reporting that Google is working on more than just a Gear VR-like headset, but rather Android VR.

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Update: SamMobile has uncovered some source code on Samsung’s event page which seems to hint at the presence of 360-degree video, although in reality, that could mean anything. It’s definitely vague, but worth noting nonetheless.

Google unveiled its Jump camera rig for 360 degree video at Google I/O 2015, and now it appears Samsung has something related up its sleeve for Mobile World Congress later this month. According to a report this morning from SamMobile, the previously-rumored Gear 360 camera rig is real, and it’s coming at Mobile World Congress alongside the new lineup of Galaxy phones… expand full story

Google is reportedly tapping into their deep bench of talent to staff their new virtual reality division. A report from Re/Code details their new design team composed of employees from around the company, as the tech industry increasingly focuses around VR.

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In a blog post, Clay Bavor, the recently anointed VP of Google’s new virtual reality division, announced that there are now over five million units of Cardboard and over 1000 Cardboard apps in Google Play. The numbers come as recent reports show Google getting into VR in a serious way, including possibly building their own headset.

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Two weeks ago, a report claimed that Google is forming its own VR division, with Clay Bavor (former VP of Gmail and Drive) in charge of the new focus on virtual reality. Now, two job listings have shown up indicating Google isn’t just really interested in VR as a concept, it wants to build its own hardware too.

Google has posted VR job listings for a Hardware Engineering Technical Lead Manager as well as a PCB Layout Engineer. Both of these job listings specifically mention Virtual Reality in the main job roles, and also mention consumer devices, suggesting Google wants to launch its own VR hardware for the general consumer. expand full story

Just a couple of days ago we told you that Scott Broock from Joust joined Google as YouTube’s “VR Evangelist,” and now it appears the Mountain View company has nabbed even more personnel to help push its virtual reality efforts forward. Jason Toff, general manager of Vine and director of product at Twitter, announced that he has joined Google to “work on VR.” It’s not yet clear exactly what his role will be, though… expand full story

Yesterday a report came out claiming that Google is forming their own virtual reality division to compete with the likes of Oculus. Perhaps coincidentally, today Google is updating its Cardboard platform with audio features found on more expensive VR headsets. One new feature, the addition of spatial audio, will allow developers to create more engrossing virtual worlds.

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As detailed in a report by Re/Code, Google is doubling down on virtual reality. Clay Bavor, the long time VP of Gmail and Drive, is being put in charge of a newly created VR division. Enterprise chief Diane Greene will be absorbing his previous responsibilities.

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Google’s virtual reality offering is doing more than just providing users a new way to watch videos and game. According to a new report from the NY Daily News, surgeons recently used Google Cardboard to help repair the lungs and heart of a four-month-old child. Teegan Lexcenher was born with half a heart and one lungs and her parents were initially told that she couldn’t be operated on, until Cardboard come into the picture..

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Virtual reality is cool, but augmented reality is more practical in day-to-day usage. Microsoft’s HoloLens and Magic Leap are currently the most well-known examples of AR. There are productivity use cases for it, but there are also many fun gaming applications. One developer made an app that turns an Android Wear watch when viewed through a camera into a game.

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With the consumer version of the Gear VR now available for purchase in stores, Samsung is ramping up what owners can do with their $100 purchase. Besides playing immersive games and watching Netflix in a faux home theater, users can now surf the web on their virtual reality headset…

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UploadVR reports that Magic Leap has poached Jeff Gattis, the global marketing head of HTC’s Vive, a virtual reality headset expected to ship by the end of the year.

Comments made by Gattis add fuel to speculation that Magic Leap’s own VR headset is close to launch, but also suggest that it is significantly more advanced than the HTC product he’s been pushing for the past eight months …  expand full story

YouTube announced today that it’s bringing two new features to its popular video-viewing service. Perhaps the most important of the two updates is that YouTube now supports VR Video. That means people can upload full virtual reality experience videos which have an added depth versus the regular two-dimensional flat video. Objects that are near look close, those further away seem far.

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Late last week, I got a chance to give HTC Vive a test run at the Big Android BBQ in Hurst, Texas. I feel almost ashamed to say this, but I hadn’t even touched virtual reality at all — besides Google Cardboard, of course — until Friday. And while this probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to those out there that have already played with devices like Oculus and Vive in the past, I’m absolutely, completely, thoroughly, fully, a believer in virtual reality. Here’s how it went down… expand full story

Samsung showed off a new Gear VR model at the Oculus Connect event today with a friendly price tag, wider compatibility, and an upcoming ship target. The virtual reality headset continues to be powered by Oculus but it’s considerably more affordable at $99 compared to the prior $199 version. Just in time for the holiday quarter, Samsung says its redesigned Gear VR will ship in November. It also boasts wider compatibility as it will work with all 2015 Samsung phones. expand full story

Project Jump is Google’s committal to making virtual reality go mainstream by making it cheaper and easier for anyone to produce VR video, and as reported by TechCrunch it’s going to let a lucky few take a Jump rig for a spin this summer. The company has a form up where interested creators can explain why they deserve to be one of the lucky few – it’s two pages long with some basic biographical questions and an essay section.

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All of the attendees of Google I/O this year (myself included) got the latest version of the Mountain View company’s Cardboard virtual reality headset for free—and now it looks like you can too. To promote their “Adult Swim Virtual Brainload” app, Adult Swim is trying to put a free Cardboard viewer in the hands of as many people as they can. But there’s only one catch: You have to fax them a form. expand full story

Dodocase has long been a supporter of Google’s Cardboard initiative, and at I/O this morning a variety of new features were announced concerning the VR platform. Dodocase has now revealed two new virtual reality viewer designs this evening following Google’s announcements earlier. Dodocase is now offering the G2 Viewer and the P2 Viewer for $24.95 each.

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Life is about seeing the wonders of the world for yourself, but Google thinks that the experience you get from reliving these moments later on through the tiny windows that today’s cameras produce is pretty limited. Which is why the company today at its I/O conference announced the release of an open-source VR camera rig specification called “Jump” which will make it much easier for creators to capture, process, and share 360-degree virtual reality video for the whole world to enjoy.

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